The Trickle-in Effect of the Trust in the Spouse: The Mediating Roles of Employees' Trust in Their Colleagues and Family-Work Enrichment

Wang Hongfei; Mao Kaixian; Dong Yan

doi:10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20260314

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Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2026, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (3) : 658-670. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20260314

Social, Personality & Organizational Psychology

The Trickle-in Effect of the Trust in the Spouse: The Mediating Roles of Employees' Trust in Their Colleagues and Family-Work Enrichment

Wang Hongfei ¹^,² ,
Mao Kaixian ² ,
Dong Yan ¹^,^**

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Abstract

Trust is an individual's positive expectation of others, which has an important impact on individuals, teams, and society. Previous studies have mostly explored the generation process of trust based on the attributes of the trustor and the trustee. Besides, trust can also be generated through transfer. Based on the work-home resources model, this study focused on two specific trust: trust in the spouse (where the employee is the trustee and the employee’s spouse is the trustor in this study) from the family domain and the colleague trust (where the employee is the trustor and the employee’s colleague is the trustee) from the work domain, and explored whether trust in the spouse has a transfer effect on the colleague trust. After exploring the transfer effect of trust in the spouse, this study also examined the trickle-in effect of trust in the spouse. That is, trust in the spouse indirectly affected the job performance of employees’ colleagues by influencing employees’ trust in colleagues. Moreover, this study examined the mediating role of family-work enrichment in the transfer effect and the trickle-in effect of trust in the spouse.

In Study 1, 172 employees (including 109 female employees) and their spouses, as well as 12 supervisors of these employees from two service companies in Jiangsu Province and Shanghai were investigated by questionnaires. This study confirmed the transfer effect of trust in the spouse, and explored the trickle-in effect of trust in the spouse, namely, trust in the spouse indirectly influenced the job performance of employees’ colleagues by influencing employees’ trust in colleagues.

In Study 2, 245 married employees and their spouses, as well as 21 supervisors of these employees from an automobile parts manufacturing company in Jiangsu Province were investigated using the cluster sampling method at two different times with a two-month interval. This study reexamined the relationship between trust in the spouse and work subsystem and examined the mediating role of family-work enrichment. The results showed that family-work enrichment mediated the relationship between trust in the spouse and employees’ trust in colleagues. Moreover, the results indicated that family-work enrichment and employees’ trust in colleagues played a chain mediating role between trust in the spouse and colleagues’ job performance.

From the theoretical perspective, first, this study confirmed the transfer effect of trust in the spouse through two sub-studies in different companies, indicating that the result is reliable and stable. This finding enriched the existing literature on trust transfer, echoed and enriched the work-home resources model, indicating that trust is one kind of important resources in the family domain. This study also provided new empirical evidence for the establishment and dissemination of trust in social life. Second, this study tested the trickle-in effect of trust in the spouse, which not only enriched the research about the trickle-in effect but also revealed a cross-domain indirect social impact, that is, the employee’s spouse could indirectly influence the employee’s colleagues in the organization through the employee. Third, based on the transfer effect and the trickle-in effect of trust in the spouse, this study examined the mediating role of family-work enrichment. This reveals how trust, as an important resource in the family domain, leads to the promotion of personal resources, and finally influences the work domain. This result not only explained the mediating mechanism of the transfer effect and the trickle-in effect of trust in the spouse, but also expanded the empirical research on family-work enrichment, and broadened the work-home resources model. From the practical perspective, this study suggests that improving trust in the spouse could promote the positive behavior of employees, improve the trust level of the work team, and enhance organizational effectiveness.

Key words

trust transfer / trickle effect / family-work enrichment / work-home resources model

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Wang Hongfei , Mao Kaixian , Dong Yan. The Trickle-in Effect of the Trust in the Spouse: The Mediating Roles of Employees' Trust in Their Colleagues and Family-Work Enrichment[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2026, 49(3): 658-670 https://doi.org/10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20260314

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